TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas looks to be a new battleground this summer for bank attacks on field of membership, branch expansion and conversions with formation expected this month of a banker-inspired Interim Credit Union study in the state legislature.

Following a Kansas Bankers Association legislative campaign two years ago to clamp down on state CUs "growing beyond their mission and charter," state lawmakers are likely to clear creation of the joint House-Senate study panel with an eye toward considering restrictive legislation in 2008.

Backing for the study panel comes from an influential Kansas banker/lawmaker, Sen. Ruth Teichman, chair of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee and director of a Stafford, Kan. bank. Teichman, a Republican whose family owns four southwestern Kansas banks, played a key role in the 2005 KBA drive for the so-called Post Audit Review of the Kansas Department of Credit Unions with criticism of agency policies allowing CU branch expansion, particularly into bankers' turf in mortgages and commercial lending. The attempt to stoke an anti-CU climate has been underway for months with circulation of the Audit Review report which claimed the department was being lax in enforcing Kansas law and was not "in conformance" with U.S. Supreme Court interpretations on FOM expansion. The Kansas Credit Union Association said it was prepared for the bank campaign with stepped up co-op ads, letter writing to lawmakers and participation in various literacy and public service ventures aimed at demonstrating the CU role in Kansas communities.